[The Saucepan Man]

"Swords and Sorcery" films have generally been a huge disppointment to me. Certainly, I don't think that there is anything in the fantasy genre to match LotR. <P>Dungeons and Dragons was pretty distressing (to a veteran AD+D'er as I was at the time), while films like Willow, Beastmaster and Hawk the Slayer were OK at the time but not, I think, great films. Conan the Barbarian was also, I seem to recall, a major diappointment to one who had read and enjoyed many of the books. It's a long time since I saw any of these, but I certainly do not recall them making any great lasting impression on me.<P>I would definately place Legend at the better end of the scale. While I agree that it didn't really have much of a story to it, it certainly looked good and Tim Curry turned in a great performance. Also, it is worth watching just to see a fledgling Tom Cruise. <P>Funnily enough I also recall enjoying those "muppet" films, Labyrinth (with an enjoyably ridiculous David Bowie) and Dark Crystal, which had quite an interesting concept and some quite quirky villains.<P>Jason and the Argonauts was immensely enjoyable, as were most of the Sinbad films (Eye of the Tiger being my favourite). Ray Harryhausen really was the master of monster SFX before CGI came along (the "muppets", I am afraid, really didn't quite cut the mustard). The skeletons in (I think) Jason and the Argonauts and the fight between the Sabretooth and the Ogre-Centaur in Eye of the Tiger are among my favourite film-monster moments of all time. Other "Sinbad" highlights include the Cyclops, the Kali-style six-armed serpent creature and the bronze minotaur. Funnily enough, the more recent Clash of the Titans did not, in my view, really match up to these earlier films.<P>As for Sc-Fi, HC has mentioned most of my favourites (Blade Runner, 2001 and Alien), although I would add the first and best of the Star Wars films. Also, Brazil is one of my all-time favourites too, HC. Talking of Terry Gilliam, and to bring things back to the fantasy(ish) genre, I must put a vote in for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All the Monty Python films are great, but that just has to be my favourite.